Oh dear - egg numbers seemed to have been down over the last week or so. We think the "Old" Girls are unhappy with the "New" Girls and this has put them off lay. Fast forward a day or so though and whilst watering the window box I cast my eye down to ground level and what did I see - 12 eggs in the front flower bed. Honestly!!!
After this discovery every time we saw a hen head into the flowers she was scooped up and returned to the hen house. Problem solved? No chance!! Egg numbers dropped again but there were none in the flower bed. Hang on - isn't that the sound of "The Other Old Hen" squawking I've just-laid-an-egg ........ in the woodshed. A quick investigation and yes - one lovely warm egg in a bag of hay. But that's only one and with no more eggs in the flower bed and none in the boxes the others must have found somewhere else to lay. But where? Luckily "Old Speckled Hen" also make a heck of a lot of noise after laying and in doing so she
led me to the egg stash - in the stinging nettles in the sheep field - 6 this time and I'm really not surprised about all of "OSP's" shouting - this is what she laid!!"Ouch"
And to go with this egg - bacon of course. I have just made bacon for the first time which I have to admit is a little salty - not a problem though, soak it in water for a little while and it's fine.
So we're having home-laid eggs and home-made bacon for lunch. Yum.
How lovely.....your own eggs and bacon. We have the eggs and hopefully we should be getting our first pigs in August, so we should have bacon by Christmas!! Lucky, lucky you to have it already.
ReplyDeleteAnd how apt that the word verification below is 'swines'!! Lol
Sue xx
Yes that's chickens for you, they'll hide their eggs in the hardest to find places given half a chance!
ReplyDeleteWas the big one was a double yolker?
Mmmm your own bacon, how wonderful.
Mmmmm. My favourite. Bet you don't have half a pint of water in every rasher!
ReplyDeleteChickens seem like funny creatures, such personalities! Wow, your very own eggs and bacon, I'm very impressed!! Yum
ReplyDeleteCor ouwch.... now you see how that ones rippled? thats how one of mine is laying? corugated eggs I call em :oS googling throws up all sorts of nasties but shes healthy as heck ,far as I can see,its most odd! Am glad to see another wrinkly egg though!
ReplyDeleteGTM x x
and you have a skelter too!
ReplyDeletewhich recipe did you do for the bacon? our first go was a bit salty too... but as you say a little soak and it works out
That big egg - we've not eaten it yet but it certainly does look like it's corrugated. It comes from our oldest hen who has the largest comb and looks really healthy - I just feel for her everytime she lays an egg.
ReplyDeleteThe bacon was great - no added water. I used a HFW recipe - 5 days of salting - maybe I'll reduce tht down to 3 next time, especially as I intend to freeze the excess bacon.
How do you get on with the egg skelter CiG? I find the eggs don't roll too well on it, especially if there is more than about 8 of them. Maybe my girls don't lay sufficiently even shaped eggs!
I can empathise with hens laying anywhere but in their nest! I can regularly be found "stalking" hens in the morning to see where they are "hiding" their eggs this time. One cunning lady had laid hers behind a patch of nettles - I still found 'em though! Bet your bacon tastes delicious too!
ReplyDeleteskelter works for me. sometimes they get a little stuck and need encouragement.. but it beats trying to remember which box was the next to be eaten etc... and looks pretty.
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ReplyDeleteCiG - you mean you don't have a list stuck to the fridge door like me - egg skelter followwed by blue box followed by egg cage followed by green box .......?!
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